


A Perfect Christmas

by thevalesofanduin



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Christmas, Community: avengers_xchng, Fluff, Holiday Fic Exchange, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-21
Updated: 2012-12-21
Packaged: 2017-11-21 21:54:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/602479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thevalesofanduin/pseuds/thevalesofanduin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This year, Bruce decides, he will give Clint and Wade the best Christmas they've ever had.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Perfect Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for carriesagun on LJ for the Avengers Holiday Exchange! Hope you enjoy it <3
> 
> It's my first time writing this pairing (and Wade) and I hade a lot of fun with it!
> 
> Also ~
> 
> Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas has never been something Clint and Bruce celebrated as a couple.

Sure, they attended Tony’s annual Christmas-gala and enjoyed the “family dinner” on Christmas Day with the other Avengers. But aside from that, the holiday wasn’t one that was actively celebrated by them.

The year they’d adopted Wade – the boy had only been three back then – they’d put up a Christmas tree in a corner of their living-room. It had been a bit of a bare tree since Wade had broken most of the baubles before they’d been hung in the tree and no-one had cared to replace them.

Throughout the days the tree was standing in the room, the other baubles had died a lone death against the hardwood floor. But it had been a tree and Bruce had to admit he’d been happy to have one. He’d never had a fun Christmas with his family but he liked the sentiment of the holiday. Not necessarily the gift giving, but the being together as a family.

So that was how they had spent all their Christmases after that year. Being together as a family rather than putting up a tree and giving gifts that were quite meaningless.

Yet Bruce had noticed something last year. It was when they were spending the evening at Tony and Steve’s quarters – all the Avengers living in Stark tower, each having two floors to use as their own – with Wade and Peter playing in a corner. For the first time Clint had looked wistfully at the abundance of decorations in Tony and Steve’s apartment. That year, for the first time, Clint had been the one insisting they watch some horrible Christmas movie and there had even been some gifts underneath their Christmas tree on the morning of Christmas day.

Or perhaps, Bruce later concluded, it was the first year he had actually noticed the fact that Clint actually wanted the cliché Christmas with a big, full tree lightening up the living-room. The Christmas with the gifts and the whole shebang. 

After the revelation, he’d spent a lot of time pondering why Clint hadn’t told him he wanted that. That’s when it hit him. He had been the one that had decided they didn’t need a big Christmas. Clint, on the other hand, hadn’t voiced any thoughts. Instead, he had nodded along with Bruce’s idea and that was that, topic closed. So in essence, Clint had done what he always did. He put someone else before himself.

Bruce didn’t want any of that.

He loved Clint and he was going to show the other he could have whatever he wanted. Because damn him if he couldn’t throw his husband the best Christmas ever.

\---

It’s the 16th of December, it’s cold and Wade is being the most difficult he has ever been even though he knows very well that his father is on a schedule.

Bruce figures that’s exactly the reason why the boy is being difficult.

Wade is waiting for the elevator – the entrance to their ‘apartment’ in Stark Tower – kicking a patch of wall. When Bruce nears, he turns around. “Finally.” He rolls his eyes – as if he is the one that has been waiting – in a way that reminds Bruce a bit too much of Clint.

Bruce shakes his head at his son and crosses his arms in front of his chest. “I remember quite clearly that I told you to wear your scarf and mittens. And your hat.”

Wade shrugs. “I don’t feel like wearing them.” He says defiantly and adds: “Pops never does, anyway.”

Bruce sighs. Seriously, how many times has he talked with Clint about setting a good example for their son?

“Right, so you want to be like Pops?” Bruce asks and at Wade’s eager nod he merely shakes his head. He grabs his own scarf out of the reed basket standing under the coat rack. “Just don’t dare complain when you feel cold or get sick.” He tells Wade sternly.

Wade smirks – as confident as any eight year old, thinking he won’t feel cold at all – and stuffs his hands into the pockets of his coat before shuffling into the elevator. “I won’t.” He promises and Bruce knows Wade will regret it. This happens every year and every year Wade gets sick.

Bruce doesn’t, however, refer to that. He knows very well that out of both Clint and him, Clint is the ‘cool’ Not that he minds. In fact, if Wade would think he was the cool parent, he would have seriously thought something was wrong with his son.

“Of course you won’t.” Bruce smiles and steps into the elevator with Wade.

“So,” Wade turns to look up at him when the elevator starts its descent, grinning widely. “Pops will love this surprise, right?”

Bruce can’t help but return his son’s grin, reaching out to weave his fingers through Wade’s short dirty-blond hair. “Yeah, he will.”

\---

Two and a half hours later they return.

The moment the elevator doors open to reveal their living-room, Bruce knows Clint is home. Shoes are thrown down next to the elevator and a leather jacket hangs onto the back of one of the chairs.

Clint pops his head around the corner of the kitchen, a grin on his lips yet he raises an eyebrow when he catches Bruce and Wade. “Did some shopping?” He asks.

“So it seems, yes.” Bruce nods, walking up to the couch and dropping the four bags onto it. When he turns Wade is already sneaking off to his bedroom, a bag of his own pressed against his chest.

Bruce can’t help but smile affectionately.

“Hey kiddo, what cha got there?” Clint asks.

“Nothing, Pops.” Wade says and glances at Bruce – it’s sort of cute that a boy wanting to be as bad-ass as Wade wants to be can’t lie to his parents.

“Be back in ten.” Bruce tells him and before Clint can even ask what the boy is up to, Wade runs off to his room.

“So,” Clint says, making is way over to Bruce while rubbing his dirty hands against his pants. “What was that all about?”

“Nothing,” Bruce grins.

Clint raises an eyebrow, not even attempting to hide his curiosity. “Are you sure?” He asks and steps close to Bruce, wrapping his arms around Bruce’s shoulders. 

“Yes,” Bruce answers, smiling and leaning forward to give the other a quick peck. “Very sure.” He smiles even though, if he’s really honest, he will admit that he still feels jittery. Before Clint, he never teased anyone. It just hadn’t been in his personality – or so he had thought – and besides, there was the Other Guy so he could hardly joke around all the time. But with Clint – or maybe because of Clint – things are different. He feels more comfortable within his own skin. Which, considering he’s married to Clint, has a son like Wade and shares a building with the other Avengers, is a good thing. 

Clint tightens his hold around Bruce’s shoulders and a teasing grin slides onto his lips. “And there is nothing I can do to persuade you to tell me?”

“You can try,” Bruce teases, following the lines of a well known scenario. Because he might not take the initiative, he always finds a way to urge Clint on to be the one to actually take the first step.

Bruce knows Clint doesn’t mind.

Clint leans in closer, his lips brushing against Bruce’s as he speaks, softly and teasingly. “Always.” Then he presses his lips against Bruce’s.

It feels familiar, comfortable and Bruce leans into Clint’s touch, shuddering – like always – when a tongue teases his lips apart and slides deftly into his mouth. Bruce closes his eyes, enjoys the kiss, swipes his tongue against Clint’s.

“Gross!” Wade suddenly yells.

Bruce breaks the kiss and turns to look at Wade. Their son is standing at the stairs that lead to the upper-level of their two floors, where the bed and bathrooms are, with an openly appalled look on his face.

“That was a quick ten minutes.” Bruce says, raising an eyebrow. Usually Wade is far from quick. Although from the shuffle of the boy’s feet and the quick dart of his gaze towards the bags on the couch, he knows why.

Wade is looking forward to their new way of celebrating Christmas, too.

Wade crosses his arms in front of his chest and shakes his head at his parents. “Too bad for you.” He says cockily.

Clint barks a laugh and releases Bruce to turn to Wade. “Damn right, kiddo.”

“Clint,” Bruce mumbles immediately, sending his husband a warning glare. Really, how many times does he need to remind Clint not to curse around Wade? True, their son probably knows the words already but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there to set a good example for their son.

Clint rolls his eyes at Bruce and turns to Wade again, beckoning him over. When the boy is standing next to him, Clint squats down and nudges Wade his shoulder. “So what have you two been up to?”

Wade glances at Bruce and then smirks at Clint. “Dad didn’t want to tell you, did he?” He asks and Bruce can’t help but feel proud. 

Clint shakes his head with a grin. “Nope. Which is why you are going to tell me.”

Wade huffs, obviously offended his Pops thinks he is just going to tell. “Yeah, right.”

“Very right.” Clint says and pokes Wade his cheek. “Because I know a certain someone that wants the new Super Mario game. A game which I happen to have wrapped as a present.”

Wade’s eyes widen slightly at that, shimmer with a slight greed. He glances at his father and Bruce knows right away he is going to be ratted out. Wade can never say no to a video game.

“Clint,” Bruce sighs, thinking of a way to rescue the situation. 

He, unfortunately, can’t think of anything so in the end he just rambles: “Maybe Santa wants to give Wade that as a present. So you shouldn’t –”

“Dad,” Wade interrupts him, looking at Bruce with a raised eyebrow and a look on his face that says ‘are you fucking kidding me?’.

“Right, okay.” Bruce clears his throat embarrassedly. Not cool. He stands there, feeling awkward for a moment with Wade looking at him like he is the most ridiculous person ever and Clint looking thoroughly amused. Then he gestures to the couch and says: “Why don’t I just show you what we bought.” 

Wade looks excited suddenly, a lot less embarrassed at his father. “I’ll show Pops!” He exclaims and rushes to the couch.

“Yeah, just…” Bruce starts, wanting to tell Wade to be careful – he wants to at least have a few of those baubles in their tree. But he trails off when Clint looks at him, silently telling Bruce that ‘Wade is not that much of a kid’. “Yeah, go ahead.” He eventually says with a smile.

He watches Wade pull a few boxes out of the plastic bags and startles slightly when suddenly Clint is standing next to him, entwining their fingers.

“You’re getting better.” Clint says fondly.

Bruce raises an eyebrow and glances at his husband. “At what?”

Clint shrugs. “At letting him be a kid. I know it’s hard for you sometimes.”

Bruce swallows, a lump in his throat. Clint and him have never discussed this, not really. Sure, Clint knows that Bruce winces every time Wade does something that could be dangerous but he has never told his husband how afraid he sometimes is to let Wade be… Wade. Because Wade likes dangerous things, has a bad mouth and a bad reputation and even though he is only eight years old, Bruce knows he will be trouble when he grows up. Not the bad kind, not necessarily. But Bruce always has to take a few extra breaths, needs to calm himself down, when he tries to tell his son that no, he can’t beat up other kids even if they had been throwing pieces of paper to Peter’s head.

He knows it isn’t Wade’s fault Bruce is like this. But that doesn’t mean that Bruce isn’t afraid to get too angry, too agitated and end up doing something – have the Other Guy do something – that could hurt his little boy.

“Yeah, I guess,” he mumbles eventually and Clint squeezes his hand. 

Then Clint releases his hand and saunters over to the living-room table, standing in front of the couch, where Wade is currently stacking the boxes onto each other. “So buddy, what is in those?” Clint asks.

“Balls,” Wade says and proudly puts a black box on top of the entire stack. “I picked this one.”

Clint raises an eyebrow, turns to Bruce and mouths ‘balls?’.

Bruce just shrugs with a smile. “Baubles, Wade.” He reminds the other but Wade just ignores him.

Instead, the boy pulls off the lid of the black box and all but shoves it into Clint’s face. “Look, spiders!” He exclaims proudly as he presents Clint with a look to the red, spider printed baubles he picked.

Bruce thinks they’re absolutely hideous. Not something to hang in a Christmas tree. But Wade had been so excited when he saw them he just couldn’t say no.

Meanwhile, Clint grinned at the baubles and got one out of the box, holding it up to get a better look at it. “So you really like spiders, hm?”

Wade nods eagerly.

Clint turns to their son, a raised eyebrow and teasingly asks: “Since when?”

Bruce shakes his head, amused. Even more so when Wade straightens his back, shrugging. “Since ever.”

Clint and he both know that is not true, but they have also decided that they are not going to address Wade’s crush on Peter Rogers-Stark. They have talked about it, about the best thing to do. In the end, they thought it was best to let things run its course. Because for now, things are fine the way they were and both Bruce and Clint and Tony and Steve pretended not to see the little pecks to cheeks given by both boys. Although Bruce knows very well that Tony and Steve have had heated discussions about their sons infatuation with Wade. Not that he could blame them, but he has told Steve that he would appreciate it if he kept in consideration that Wade is not just a random kid Peter liked. He is Clint and his son.

“Doctor Banner, I was asked to inform you that your delivery has arrived.” JARVIS suddenly announces over the speakers Tony had installed throughout their apartment.

“Ah, good!” Bruce smiles excitedly and Wade is grinning while Clint just looks slightly puzzled.

“Delivery?”

“Yeah! Our Christmas tree is here!” Wade says and rushes to the elevator in excitement. “I will go get it.” He says and presses the button to summon the elevator up.

Bruce looks at Clint. “Why don’t you help?” He tells his husband. “Then I’ll go make us all something to drink and we can decorate the apartment together afterwards.”

“You ordered us a tree?” Clint asks, standing up and looking at Bruce with a small frown.

“Yeah,” Bruce nods and gives Clint a small, shy smile. “This year, things will be different.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, per –”

“Come on, Pops! Just hurry!” Wade calls and Clint can’t do anything but obey.

\---

It takes them half an hour to get the 6,5 feet tree into their living-room and Wade is almost gaping at the size of the tree and Clint looks sort of baffled Bruce has actually gotten a tree this size.

“There weren’t any smaller ones available?” Clint asks after a while, turning to Bruce with a raised eyebrow yet he looks entirely too amused and happy at the entire situation.

Bruce chuckles. “Well you know, now that we finally have a tree this year I thought I’d better make it a big one.”

Bruce then makes his way over to the table, grabbing the small box of Christmas lights that are supposed to go into the tree.

“So, why do we suddenly have a tree this year?” Clint asks, taking a second box of lights from the table and making his way over to the tree. He hands the box to Wade and opens the lid, discarding it to the floor and getting the lights out with Wade still holding the box.

Bruce shrugs with a small smile. “I don’t know, I just felt like it. Besides, both Wade and you don’t mind, do you?” He asks casually.

Wade nods eagerly, dumping the now empty box to the ground and taking the box Bruce is holding. “Yeah,” he grins and puts the box down, opening it and getting the lights out.

“I certainly don’t mind,” Clint says and grins at Bruce in such a way it’s obvious he doesn’t quite believe the reason Bruce is giving him.

There will probably be questions tonight.

“Okay buddy, let’s get these lights in the tree, okay?” Clint turns to Wade and they both start clipping the lights to a branch one by one.

While Clint’s lights line up nicely, going around the tree and up a bit, Wade’s are littered all across the tree, some of them upside down and others just barely hanging onto a branch.

Bruce can’t help but smile affectionately at seeing the two men he loves hanging Christmas lights in a pine tree. For the first time he wonders why the hell they haven’t done this before.

“I’ll go make us some fresh hot chocolate.” He says, gathering the empty mugs on the table before heading to the kitchen.

 

When he returns five minutes later with the three mugs of hot chocolate, all the lights are in the tree and Wade is looking at the floor guiltily while Clint is on his knees on the ground.

Bruce puts the mugs down, about to ask what happened when he sees the shards of purple glass lying on the floor. From Wade’s guilty look he knows what happened right away. 

He gives Wade a reassuring smile and squats down next to his son. He reaches out a hand and squeezes his shoulder before giving him a small nudge. “It’s a good thing we got some extras, isn’t it?”

Wade brightens considerably, grins and nods. “Sure is.” He says and the next moment he is happily grabbing two purple baubles and hanging them in the tree.

It takes them about an hour and a half to get almost all the baubles and other decorations into the tree and it is good natured fun the entire time. Truly, Bruce loves Clint and Wade with all his heart but it has been a while since they have had so much fun together in such a short time. 

“Okay, I’m going to put the last one in!” Wade says and puts the last of his red baubles in the tree. Then, he takes a step back and smirks at his handiwork. “It looks awesome.”

Bruce can’t help but agree. It certainly doesn’t look like the picture perfect Christmas trees that are always at Tony’s galas. In fact, it doesn’t even look as good as the tree Tony and Steve had at their quarters last year. But it’s a tree, filled with purple, green and red-with-spider baubles and really? It couldn’t be any more perfect than it is.

\---

A few days later, Bruce goes out to buy gifts.

He already knows what he’s going to get Wade. So Bruce his first stop is Toys R Us to get some new Lego sets for Wade. He knows the boy has been wanting an extension to his medieval castle and his racing circuit. He’s also getting Wade a set of Nerf guns. He’s been saying ‘no’ to his son owning a set of those for a very long time and even now he isn’t so sure whether he’s doing the right thing in getting it for Wade. But he knows the gift will make Wade very happy and Clint has told him numerous times that a healthy boy has to have had at least a Nerf gun to play with.

Next he sets out to get Clint a few gifts. He wants to spoil his husband this year, already has a few gifts in mind but they’re just small gifts like books Clint wants, a new scarf and some new arrows for his bow. But he can’t think of the ‘big’ gift. Hasn’t got a clue what to get Clint. Because if he wants this Christmas to be the best ever for his husband, he needs to have the best gift ever too.

He sets out to get the easier gifts first and it only takes him an hour to get to all the stores to actually buy everything. Then, he settles down in a coffee shop with a cup of steaming decaf to mule over what special gift to get. He could, of course, ask Natasha for advice but he has been married to Clint long enough that by now, he thinks he should be able to manage on his own.

That is when he notices the small shop on the other side of the street. Clint and him have been there once, when Clint wanted to get a special gift for Coulson’s birthday. It’s a second-hand vintage shop with a collection that ranges from clothing to furniture to, yes, Captain America trading cards. 

That’s when he remembers the way Clint had been looking at an old pinball machine in the store. He can’t help but smile. Clint told him it reminded him of his youth. How they had one of those machines at the circus he’d grown up at and how they had always let him play it free of charge. He’d looked so happy, slightly nostalgic and when he’d told Bruce that Hawkeye had been at the top of scoring points for as long as Clint could remember he’d even looked proud.

‘Yes, that’s it!’ Bruce thinks. He remembers the machine being quite expensive, which was why Clint hadn’t bothered getting it. So it would be the perfect thing to get his husband. The ultimate surprise.

With a smile lining his lips, he finishes his coffee and, carrying all the other bags of gifts he has already bought, sets off to the store to get Clint his gift.

\---

After that, time seems to rush by.

By the 21st Clint is sent on a S.H.I.E.L.D. mission with Natasha.

Clint is gone for three days.

During that time Bruce attempts to bake cookies with both Wade and Peter and ends up with the kitchen walls plastered in cookie batter. Some of the stuff even finds its way to the ceiling which amazes Bruce quite a lot. The next day, Peter is out with his parents for the day and Wade complains so much about the fact he doesn’t have a gaming partner that in the end, Bruce succumbs. He knows he can’t play video games, Wade knows he can’t play video games and in the end Bruce’s character gets killed every time within two minutes. But at least Wade is happy playing and Bruce is used to losing anyway so it’s a good compromise.

The day after that, Bruce has the entire day to himself. Wade is four floors up, playing with Peter and if he’s honest, Bruce has to admit he’s quite happy with that arrangement. 

That way he can finish his preparations for the ‘perfect Christmas’. He rings the man from the second-hand store, asks him if it was possible to have the pinball machine delivered that day and just two hours later he has Clint’s gift stored in their office – the one room Clint never occupies. He also makes dinner reservations at a restaurant for Christmas eve. While that would normally have been impossible the day before, when he ‘accidentally’ lets it slip he is an Avenger the reservation is made right away. He also wraps all the gifts and by the time Wade gets back at their apartment that night he is quite tired.

The day after, the day of Christmas Eve, Clint comes home.

 

Bruce is in the kitchen, preparing lunch for Wade, Peter and himself when Clint gets home. He hears the familiar shuffle at the elevator, the usual drop of a bag at the stairs and then Clint is behind him, his arms around his middle and his nose buried against Bruce’s neck.

“Hi babe,” Clint murmurs and presses a soft kiss against Bruce’s neck.

Bruce lowers the heat and turns around in Clint’s arms, smiling happily. It’s always such a relief to have Clint home again. “Hi yourself,” 

Clint chuckles and leans in, kissing Bruce slowly and tenderly, one of his hands sliding into messy curls.

They kiss languidly for a few moments, both happy with the fact Clint is home – especially that he is home in time for Christmas.

Then footsteps sound from the upper level and Wade is shouting “Pops!” and rushing down the stairs, Peter following closely behind him.

Clint releases Bruce and turns around, giving Wade a hug and Peter a wave. “Hi there, kiddo.” He says and squeezes Wade’s shoulder. “Did you behave?”

Wade chuckles. “Never,” he says and – apparently having seen Clint long enough – darts away again. “Come on Peter, let’s go back to our game!”

Peter hesitates, gives Clint a shy smile, mumbles a soft “welcome back Sir,” before rushing upstairs after Wade.

Bruce sighs, shaking his head at the two boys and he watches Clint stand up. “They’ve been playing games all morning now.” He says and then chuckles. “Better Peter than me, though.”

Clint raises an eyebrow in amusement. “You?” He asks, laying his arms around his husband’s shoulders.

Bruce nods, still chuckling. “Yeah, Wade didn’t have anyone to play with so I… offered to play with him.”

Clint laughs and nuzzles Bruce’s neck. “Oh babe… he kicked your ass, didn’t he?”

Bruce laughs. “Very much so, yes. He kept complaining that I’m not ‘cool’ enough to play games.”

Clint chuckles, kissing Bruce before looking at the other with a grin. “Then our son is a fool.” He says and kisses Bruce. “I think you’re very cool.”

Bruce nudges Clint. “Liar. I’m a total geek.” 

“Okay, okay, you are.” Clint laughs and then gives Bruce an adoring smile. “And I love you for that.”

“Good to know.” Bruce says. “And, I made reservations for tonight.”

Clint raises an eyebrow at that. “Reservations?”

“Yeah, I’m taking you and Wade out for dinner tonight.”

Clint whistles, his eyes shining happily when he says: “You’re taking us out for dinner on Christmas Eve? My, babe, what did I do to deserve this?”

Bruce grins, happy that Clint is happy and he strokes the back of his hand down Clint his cheek. “By being you.” He mumbles even though he knows it is incredibly sappy.

So sappy, in fact, that Clint doesn’t have a reply. He just leans in and kisses Bruce again.

\---

That night they have dinner at a fancy restaurant – that is not too fancy because they are still Bruce and Clint, and Wade just can’t be trusted in anything where even a fork costs more than his annual allowance.

It’s a nice restaurant with dimmed lights, candles, white table linen and everyone is talking amongst themselves over the soft Christmas music playing in the background.

There is only one thing – or rather, person – disturbing the calm and slightly romantic atmosphere.

True, not a lot of people are disturbed but the lady sitting at the table opposite of theirs is starting to look around in annoyance quite often by now.

“Wade,” Bruce hisses, right when his son is about to fire another pea from his spoon into the woman’s hair. He pushes his son’s hand down, grabs the spoon and points it at Wade while he warningly says: “Stop that right now.”

Wade glares for a moment before pouting. “But dad!”

“No, Wade. Behave yourself.” Bruce firmly shakes his head. “You can eat normally at home so I expect you to do that here as well.”

“But I’m bored.” Wade pouts even more, big eyes looking up at his father pleadingly.

On Wade’s other side, Clint reaches out a hand to pat the boy his shoulder. “It’s all right, Kiddo. We get that.”

Bruce sighs, maybe even wishes that they’d gone to a place where Wade could’ve run off to a kiddy corner to entertain himself. “Why don’t I get you some paper and a few pencils so you can make a drawing, okay?” He offers. Because Clint is right. He does understand that Wade is bored and he could’ve put a bit more thought in his choice of restaurant.

Wade frowns at him, clearly dissatisfied with the solution but nods nonetheless, sighing. “Okay,” and if that sounds more like a ‘whatever the fuck you want,’ then Bruce totally ignores it.

“Good,” Bruce nods, even though Wade probably doesn’t really mean it he is still relieved the boy is at least giving in. “Then I will be right back.” He says and with a look at Clint – who gives him a nod in return – he gets up and sets off to the bar.

 

When he makes his way back to the table ten minutes later, paper and a few colored pencils in hand, he freezes.

There, at the table are Clint and Wade, grinning like idiots. Wade is holding his spoon again, pea placed neatly into it and Clint is mumbling things to Wade while the boy turns the spoon around. 

Bruce sighs and, when Clint nods encouragingly and Wade releases the spoon, pea soaring through the air before landing in a potted plant a few feet away, he closes his eyes for a few moments. Why, he wonders, did he marry Clint again? Or rather, why did he decide that raising a kid with Clint – who was so much of a kid himself – was a good idea?

But when he opens his eyes, sees Wade high-fiving Clint, both with silly grins on their faces Bruce knows his answer. They both have him wrapped around their little fingers.

When both his husband and son are busy preparing another spoon to shoot with, he makes his way over to the table.

He stops when he is right behind Wade, too busy to even notice the fact his father has returned, and says: “If you like it that much, I can always just get you a pot of peas for Christmas instead of the other gifts I have for you.”

Wade yelps, drops the spoon and turns around hurriedly, looking up at Bruce with big, shocked eyes. “Dad!” He shrieks and immediately points a finger at Clint. “It was Pops’ idea.” He accuses.

Clint gives Bruce a slightly guilty look and an apologetic shrug before nudging Wade in the shoulder. “Not cool, little man.”

Wade sticks out his tongue at Clint. “But it was your idea.”

Bruce sits down at the table, pushes Wade’s plate aside and gives him the paper and pencils. “Why don’t you draw now and we’ll work on your aim at home.”

Wade raises an eyebrow, curiously looking at Bruce. “You’re not mad?”

Bruce chuckles, shakes his head and ruffles Wade his hair. “Not at all, Wade.” 

Wade grins absolutely brilliantly at those words and without so much as a pip or a glance starts drawing.

 

After dinner, when Clint is off paying their bill – he insisted he paid since Bruce was the one who made the reservations and this was the least Clint could do in return – Bruce is putting on his jacket when Wade hands him something.

Bruce blinks at first, slightly caught off guard, and smiles when he sees it’s a drawing.

“That’s for you.” Wade says.

“Thanks, Wade.” Bruce gives his son a happy smile and takes the drawing. When he sees the drawing his smile morphs into a wide, stupid grin and he feels warm all over.

On the piece of paper, there is a huge Christmas tree, under it a stack of gifts and three stick figures that look like they represent Bruce, Clint and Wade. They’re holding hands and a few music notes are drawn over their heads, as if they’re singing songs.

It’s the most beautiful thing Bruce has ever seen.

“I really like this year’s Christmas.” Wade says resolutely and takes Bruce’s hand, dragging him over to Clint.

Bruce can’t help but agree.

\---

When they get home, they put an exhausted Wade to bed.

After that, they settle down onto the couch with some wine. Bruce is leaning against Clint, his back against his husband’s chest, perfectly content with just watching the Christmas tree light up the room.

When suddenly Clint slides a hand into his messy curls, Bruce sighs happily. Sometimes, life is perfect.

“Bruce?” Clint asks softly, his hand sliding down to Bruce’s free hand and rubbing circles against the back of it.

“Hmm?” Bruce hums, not quite paying attention.

Clint leans down a bit, his chin resting atop of Bruce his head. “Thanks for all of this.”

“This?” Bruce asks, feigning ignorance although he’s very certain he knows what Clint is talking about.

Clint chuckles softly. “The tree, all of those gifts and dinner tonight…” Clint trails off and then hesitantly asked: “I didn’t ruin it, did I?”

Bruce pulls his hand out from underneath Clint’s his and places it atop of it instead, intertwining their fingers. “Of course not. Clint, there was nothing to ruin as long as Wade and you were happy.”

Clint laughs affectionately at that. “Sometimes I really think I don’t deserve you.”

Bruce laughs. “Only sometimes?”

“Hey!” Clint calls out and then gets serious. “But really, you didn’t have to do all of this. You know that right?”

“But I really did.” Bruce argues softly. He takes a few moments to think about what to say next. The way Clint’s hand tightens under his grasp tells him that his message has reached his husband. That the other understands that this is for him. “You’re always doing things for me, looking out for me. Meanwhile all I do is forget the time when I’m working in the lab.” Bruce laughs a bit cynically.

“I don’t mind.” Clint replies right away.

“I know.” Bruce squeezes Clint’s hand. “I just wanted to return that. And after I noticed last year how… selfish it actually was to tell both Wade and you how I want to celebrate Christmas without asking you. Well, this is what you get.” He chuckles.

“It’s perfect.” Clint says, kissing the top of Bruce’s head.

Bruce chuckles. “And then you haven’t even seen it all.”

“There is more?” Clint asks and excitedly adds: “Can’t wait.”

\---

Footsteps tap against the floor, then the stairs as Wade all but flies down the stairs and Bruce can’t help but groan. He turns around to lay on his stomach and buries his head in his pillow, refusing to either look at the alarm to check the time or get up.

Besides him, Clint chuckles softly. Then the archer drapes himself across Bruce’s back and nuzzles the back of his husband’s neck. “Merry Christmas,” he murmurs, sounding way too amused this early in the morning.

“Ho ho ho.” Bruce groans into his pillow, not for the first time damning Clint’s ability to function in the morning.

“Don’t you sound peachy.” Clint jokes, stroking a hand down Bruce’s side.

“Very,” Bruce mutters, already feeling a bit better now that he has Clint plastered against his back. “After I have some coffee I’ll feel more like a human again.”

Clint laughs, his hot breath ghosting over Bruce’s neck. “Too bad,” he says. “I’m afraid our son won’t have that amount of patience.”

“Pops! Dad!” Wade shouts suddenly, as if on cue, and the cry is followed by the sounds of their son rushing up the stairs.

Bruce snorts. “I’m afraid he doesn’t even know what the word means.”

And then the door bursts open, Wade running in and taking a leap to the bed right away. He lands on the bed, or rather, on top of Clint. 

At the bottom of their two and a half men pile, Bruce groans at the added weight while Clint just laughs. “Hey there buddy.”

“Come on!” Wade whines in a very un-Wade like way. “I want to unwrap my gifts already!”

“Yes, let’s.” Bruce pips up from underneath his son and husband, reply muffled by the pillow his face is currently buried into.

“Well aren’t you impatient.” Clint teases, nudging him in the side. “Maybe we should stay here for a little while. It is quite comfy.”

Wade, however, doesn’t listen to Clint. In fact, Bruce is very certain he hasn’t even heard him. Because the moment the boy hears ‘yes’ he is excitedly scrambling off the bed. “Come on, come on!” He chides and only when Clint rolls off of Bruce and Bruce pushes himself into something that might be a sitting position, does he rush downstairs again.

Bruce sighs and rubs his temple before reaching out for his glasses on the nightstand. “So we should get down soon before he’s actually unwrapped everything before we even get there.”

 

When they get downstairs, Wade is sitting on the floor with one big heap of presents in front of him and only a few lying underneath the Christmas tree. 

“What do you think, Clint?” Bruce asks, sitting down onto the couch and pushing one of the gifts underneath the tree around a bit with his foot. “Want to start with our gifts?”

Wade doesn’t look fooled for a second and he just sticks out his tongue to Bruce. “That’s mean.”

Bruce chuckles. “No, mean would be me saying I want us to have breakfast first.” He points out, although Wade is right. Sometimes he just likes teasing his little boy. Then he waves his hand at Wade’s gifts and with a small grin says: “So get to it, before I change my mind.”

Wade doesn’t need any more encouragement than that. He’s grabbing the biggest gift of the pile and tears away the neat bow around the package. He discards it to the floor and then starts tearing at the wrapping paper like mad. It only takes him five seconds to completely destroy what was once a neatly wrapped box. 

Bruce glances at Clint, makes a bit of a frown as if to question what’s in the box. But Clint just shrugs and then turns to Wade. “I think that’s aunt Natasha’s gift.”

Bruce isn’t sure exactly what to make of the fact that Natasha got their son a Christmas gift. Sure, he’s happy she actually got him something but he’s more worried about what she got him. Natasha’s idea of what would be an ideal gift for a little boy has proven to be quite innovative and… scary last year.

Meanwhile Wade looks at the box with slightly big eyes. “Aunt Natasha?” He asks, slightly awed.

Truly, the fact that their son has a female role model he loves is perfectly fine by Bruce. Fact remains, though, that with Clint and himself as fathers and Natasha as his aunt, it’s no miracle Wade turned out to be somewhat… strange. He’s loveable and Bruce would not change him for anything in the world, but still, strange.

“I wonder what’s in it.” Wade mumbles and then pulls the lid off the box. Then, his eyes widen and he gasps before pulling a whip out of it. “Wow, awesome!” Wade yells and starts pulling more and more things out of the box.

Bruce blinks, once, twice and tries to wrap his mind around what the hell Wade got from Natasha.

He turns to Clint who is watching Wade unpack his gift with an expression that is a mix between amazement and surprise. 

“So,” he asks, turning back to Wade and closely watching the array of plastic torture tools currently displayed on their living room floor, the whip actually being a Cat o’ nine tails, Bruce now realizes. “What exactly is this?”

Wade turns to him with a wide grin. “This is the coolest thing ever!” He exclaims and starts examining one of the tools Bruce probably doesn’t want to know about.

“It is kind of awesome.” Clint adds his two cents. “But man, I never would’ve thought she was serious! Should’ve known… Nat doesn’t joke.”

Bruce feels sort of left out of the whole situation, and thus asks: “And she got Wade a…?”

Clint waves his hand at the array of tools on the floor. “A medieval torture kit, of course. Isn’t that obvious?”

Bruce blinks at Clint, turns back to the gift and resists the urge to sigh. ‘Medieval torture kit?’ He thinks, ‘more like a Bruce torture kit’. But then again, Natasha probably didn’t buy it with that in mind. Or, perhaps, knowing Natasha, she actually might have.

 

The next gift Wade unwraps is one Bruce got him. It’s a book about spiders – since Wade has a bit of an obsession with them – and Wade grins excitedly when he sees it.

Next are two Super Mario games – courtesy of Clint – and the new set of Lego that Bruce got their son. They’re both big hits and Wade’s already babbling about how much Peter will love playing the Wii games with him.

Next is another gift from Clint, wrapped in a relatively large box – although not as big as Natasha’s. Wade tears off the wrapping paper, revealing a box with an image of a bow and plastic suction arrows on top of it. Wade looks up at Clint with a shit-eating grin on his face, proudly hugging the box to his chest. “Now I can be like you, Pops!” He exclaims.

Clint chuckles but Bruce notices the proud glimmer in his husband’s eyes. “Yeah, you can.”

Bruce smiles fondly at the two of them. Wade always wants to be like Clint, fighting and being – as Wade says – as kick-ass as Pops. Bruce understands. If he’d been a kid he would’ve wanted to be like Clint too.

“You know, you two can shoot together sometime.” Bruce muses. “It’ll be fun, I can take pictures.”

“Oh, we can hold a contest!” Wade says, excitedly. Then he grins at Clint and, somewhat cockily, says: “I’m so going to win.”

Clint laughs and leans forward to ruffle his son’s hair. “Of course you are, buddy.” There is no mockery in his tone, just good natured fun and Bruce is very certain that yes, Wade is going to win. If only because Clint lets him.

Wade nods eagerly and then puts the box down carefully, more careful than he has been with the other gifts and both Bruce and Clint have stupid, happy grins plastered onto their faces. 

“So,” Bruce starts, looking at Wade’s last gift on the floor. “Last one.” He grins. He really hopes his son ends up liking the gift.

Wade does. In fact, he loves it. The moment he sees the Nerf guns his eyes go wide in surprise and a soft gasp passes his lips. Then he looks up at Bruce, gawking. “Really?” He asks, slightly ridiculed that his father finally got him the guns.

“Yes, really.” Bruce nods and when Wade tears open the box, pulling one of the guns out of it and starts ‘loading’ it, he can’t help but sigh.

He is going to regret this very soon.

 

With Wade running around, shooting balls all over the place, Bruce almost forgets the other gifts still laying under the tree. That is, until Clint hands him a neatly wrapped gift.

“A book, obviously.” Clint provides with a grin.

Bruce chuckles and unwraps the gift, not surprised to find a book he’s wanted for a while. “Thanks.” He smiles at Clint.

“I got two bigger gifts than that.” Clint laughs. “You remember that photograph taken at Wade’s birthday last year, with the three of us?” He asks.

Bruce nods with a smile, thinking back to it. It’s an amazing photograph with Wade grinning like a loon and Bruce and Clint on either side of him.

“I got it made into a painting.” Clint says with an affectionate smile but then sighs. “But it’s not finished yet. I can pick it up next week. So you’ll have to wait a bit for that one.”

Bruce grins. “That’s okay. Can’t wait to see it.”

Clint grins. “Yeah, it looks awesome! And I know you loved the photo so….” He chuckles a bit embarrassedly. Then, he calls Wade over. “Wade, get your butt over here so we can give dad his gift.” 

Bruce raises an eyebrow, surprised. “You got me a gift together?”

“Yes.” Wade grins widely and grabs a small envelope. “But I want to give mine first!” He says excitedly, handing Bruce the envelope.

When he opens it, Bruce can’t help but chuckle. Inside are little cards, all scribbled with a little text ranging from “clear out the dishwasher” to “clean out my room” and, most surprising, “finish my homework”. He looks at his son, amused. “Chore cards?”

“Yeah,” Wade nods. “Because you do so much I wanted to do something back so… yeah.” He trails off and looks at Bruce with hopeful eyes. “Do you like it?”

Bruce smiles at his son and stands up, hugging the boy close. 

“Dad!” Wade calls out, embarrassed.

“I do,” Bruce says with a grin. It might not be what most consider a real gift, but it’s so thoughtful it almost hurts and he loves it beyond words.

Wade grins happily. “That’s not all!” He exclaims and bounces on his feet. “The other one doesn’t have a box or anything… But guess where we’re going!”

Bruce raises an eyebrow. “Going? As in, a family activity?” He asks, wondering what kind of insane thing Wade and Clint came up with.

“Yeah,” Wade nods eagerly.

Bruce glances at Clint but his husband is just looking at him with a smug expression, not giving anything away. Bruce shrugs. “The zoo?”

“No,” Wade sighs exasperated. “That’s boring, we’re going somewhere cool!”

Bruce thinks on that for a moment and shakes his head. “Nope, I don’t know.” Really, it could be anything.

Wade rolls his eyes and looks at Clint. “Can I tell?” He asks impatiently.

Clint nods with a grin.

Wade turns to Bruce again and stretches his arms in excitement as he says: “We are going to NASA!”

Bruce falters a bit, surprised. “NASA?” He asks, excited already. He’s wanted to visit NASA for a very long time but due to obvious reasons has never been allowed to go there. 

“Yeah,” Clint says with a grin. “I know you’ve been wanting to go there for… well, forever. So I pulled some strings and here we go! A trip to NASA for the three of us, complete with tour and an overnight stay at a fancy hotel.”

“Wow,” Bruce sighs and takes a breath. Then he looks at Wade and Clint, breaking out into the biggest grin ever. “That’s absolutely awesome. Thanks so much.”

Clint shakes his head with a chuckle. “You deserve it.” He says with a smile.

\---

The rest of the morning is spend at the breakfast table.

Bruce prepares a stack of pancakes enough to feed a small orphanage for an entire weekend and Wade has moved all of his gifts to the kitchen counter – much to Bruce’s annoyance – and is shooting plastic arrows around the kitchen.

After that – skipping lunch altogether – it starts snowing again – like it has been for the past few days. Clint complains loudly, about how he hates snow, always has, while Wade is already rushing to the elevator to get his coat and Bruce is following closely behind.

“Stay in, if you want.” Bruce calls out over his shoulder. “But there’s snow on Christmas and I will be damned if I’m not going to enjoy it.”

Clint gets up from the couch, grumbling about cold and wet and stupid snow. But he puts on his jacket, actually bothers to wear his scarf and gloves this time – thankfully, Wade follows this example – and then the three of them go out. They go to a little park nearby Stark Tower where they have a small snowball fight which ends up with the Clint and Wade dunking Bruce with snow. Then Bruce and Wade make snow angels while Clint refuses to get down onto the ground. After that they build a snowman, although due to the size of it they dub it “snowdwarf” instead when they are down.

In the end, Wade is the first one that starts complaining he’s cold and wants to go back home. Clint’s only too happy to oblige, as is Bruce by that point.

Half frozen they arrive back home where Clint makes the three of them his signature hot chocolate and they settle down onto the couch with their drinks, watching a movie on TV.

Later, when Bruce and Clint have unpacked their own gifts – minus the pinball machine – they are leaning against each other, watching the movie and Wade is busy torturing his poor Iron Man action figure with tools from his torture set, Clint grins up at Bruce. “Did I mention that I love you?”

“It might have escaped you in passing, yes.” Bruce returns the grin, feeling as happy as he always does when Clint tells him he loves him.

“Well, I do.” Clint says and cuddles a bit closer against Bruce his side. “This is just perfect.”  
Bruce chuckles and then smirks. “You just wait. This isn’t everything yet.”

\---

That evening all the Avengers – including Wade and Peter – have dinner together in the communal dining room.

Tony has a professional chef whip up a four course dinner that’s to die for and everyone is having an amazing time. 

Bruce is looking around the table while Clint – seated on his right – is having a very animated conversation with Thor. Natasha, Pepper and Jane are seated near each other and are having a conversation Bruce isn’t quite sure he wants to know about. On the other side of the table – Bruce’s side – Tony and Steve are discussing something Bruce deems private so instead, he focuses on the two kids at the table.

Wade and Peter are seated opposite of each other – putting them next to each other would have been a very bad idea, Steve and Bruce had concluded. They seem to be having fun, Peter all but lying under the table in his attempt to kick Wade under the table and Wade tearing off little pieces of bread and chucking them at Peter’s head. 

Bruce is considering telling Wade to sit up straight and stop throwing bread at Peter. But this is not a restaurant so he decides against it. Better have Wade enjoy himself like this – as long as Peter doesn’t mind – than have him bored out of his mind and terrorizing the entire table.

“Peter,” Steve suddenly chides softly, clearly not sharing Bruce’s opinion. Steve reaches out to put one of his hands atop of Peter’s shoulder, silently forcing the boy to look up at him. “Stop trying to kick Wade. He’s your friend. Besides, we’re eating dinner so it’s impolite.”

Peter pouts but sits up straight nonetheless, looking down at his plate. “Wade isn’t my friend.” He mumbles softly.

Wade stops throwing bread right away and when Bruce turns to his son, he can see his surprise.

Steve frowns, too, and shoots a questioning look at Bruce before he asks: “Why is Wade not your friend, Peter?”

Peter then looks up at Wade almost shyly and smiles before looking at Steve. “Because he’s my boyfriend.” He states and the entire table falls silent. “And he can’t be my friend if he’s my boyfriend.”

Wade, for his part, only looks surprised for a few moments before a smirk spreads over his lips. “Peter’s right.” He adds, sounding very sure and also very proud of himself.

“Wade,” Bruce sighs. 

Clint leans forward from his seat, looking at Wade from over the table with a grin. “Congrats, buddy.” He says and Bruce isn’t sure if he wants to kiss or strangle Clint for his reaction.

Steve, on the other hand, does want to strangle Clint. “Clint!” He hisses, eyes narrowed. “They’re eight.”

“Exactly!” Clint throws back and when Steve frowns, Bruce adds: “Clint is right, Steve. Let them be.”

Steve blinks at Bruce then, glances at Tony who gives him a reassuring nod and then he shrugs with a small smile. “I guess it can’t hurt.” He concludes.

Bruce nods gratefully, relieved that Steve is so open-minded. Because of course, for someone coming from the forties, it would be awkward to hear their son declare he has a boyfriend.

Bruce then turns to look at Wade and tells him: “If you’re done with dinner you can leave the table and go play.” 

Wade glances at Peter, shaking his head. “Only if Peter’s going too.”

“Peter can go too.” Tony says and reaches out to pat his son on the back. “Just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” He says with a grin.

Wade gets up, flashes Tony a smirk and says: “That’s everything!” And then both Peter and he are running out of the room, laughing.

Tony snorts and shakes his head, looking at Clint. “Did you teach him that?”

Clint smirks. “Well, he’s right.”

“Oh yeah?” Tony challenges, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Next to him, Steve snorts and shakes his head. “Yeah,” he then says, a grin sliding onto his lips. “He’s very right.”

The comment lightens the entire mood. Bruce relaxes, Clint continues teasing Tony, and Jane all but lets out a sigh of relief before continuing her conversation with Natasha and Pepper, Thor now joining in as well.

“So,” Steve says, looking at Bruce with a bemused expression. “I heard Wade talk about a torture kit?”

Bruce sighs at being reminded at the gift and he nods, unable to keep a smile off his face. “Yes, Natasha got him a medieval torture kit as a gift.” He glances at Natasha who has a very suspicious smirk on her lips. “He loves it.”

“Unfortunately,” Steve nods in an understanding way. “She got Peter gloves.”

Bruce raises an eyebrow at that and asks: “Gloves?”

“Yes,” Steve sighs, rubbing his temple and a look torn between annoyance and amusement flickering across his face. “Gloves that shoot spider webs. I don’t know… it’s some sort of white stuff, very sticky. You should see our living room.”

“You’re welcome,” Natasha says smugly from the other end of the table, looking entirely too amused.

\---

By the time dinner ends and everyone is ready to retreat to their quarters again it’s already eleven o’clock. 

Bruce and Clint accompanied Steve and Tony to their apartment to pick up Wade. But when they get to the apartment, both boys are nowhere to be found. Bruce has a pretty good idea of where the two of them are. So when they enter Peter’s bedroom and find the two kids on the bed, asleep, he’s not surprised. He is surprised – only a little – to find the two boys cuddled together. 

It makes him glance at Steve, slightly worried about what the other could be thinking right now. 

But Steve is looking at the two boys with a fond smile and, Bruce notices, has intertwined his fingers with Tony. “Just look at them,”

“Very cute,” Tony agrees and within five seconds and snapped a few pictures of the sleeping couple with his phone. “I will send them to you.” He then tells Clint and is tapping away on his phone again.

“Thanks,” Clint grins. “That will be perfect blackmail material.”

“Blackmail?” Bruce asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Of course,” Clint says. “Or do you think Wade will be happy to have one of these photos on display.”

Bruce huffs and crosses his arms in front of his chest. “He’ll live.” Wade has to, because Bruce will be damned if he isn’t going to have one of these photos printed and framed.

“So, you want to let Wade spend the night? It would be a shame to wake them up now.” Steve then says.

“Yeah,” Tony pipes up with a smirk on his lips, waggling his eyebrows. “would be nice for you, right? Having the apartment all to yourselves on this special Christmas.”

Bruce flushes slightly at those words but he nods nonetheless. 

“Would be great,” Clint drawls and thanks Tony for his offer before he starts dragging Bruce out of the room and down the stairs.

“Clint,” Bruce chides, feeling embarrassed with Tony and Steve watching them – both grinning at them.

“Hush you,” Clint says and when Bruce and he are in the elevator, going down to their own private floor, he plasters himself to Bruce’s chest, looking at his husband with a grin. “You’ve been teasing me with it ever since yesterday and now I finally want to know what more you’ve got planned for me.”

“Well, I’ll show you soon.” Bruce replies with a grin, giving Clint a quick kiss before he steps out of the elevator. “Why don’t you get us some wine and then I’ll put on some music.”

“Music?” Clint asks, raising an eyebrow and smirking. “My babe, what do you have planned for us?”

“You’ll see,” Bruce promises and gives Clint a small nudge into the direction of the kitchen.

He feels nervous when he lights a few candles and puts on a jazz CD he knows Clint secretly loves. He hopes he made the right choice in buying Clint the pinball machine. Because if the other doesn’t like it, it could perfectly well ruin a Christmas that is so far close to perfection.

“Wow,” Clint breathes when he enters the living room again, two glasses of red wine in his hands.

Bruce turns around and looks at Clint with a sheepish smile, taking the glass of wine when it is handed to him. “Well you know, best Christmas ever and all that.”

“But you know, if would have been perfect even without all of this.” 

Bruce frowns, insecure all of a sudden. “You don’t like it?”

“Oh, no, no, babe! I love it.” Clint says and steps forward, pecking Bruce on the lips. “I’m just saying that if I have Wade and you, everything is perfect you know?”

Bruce smiles, although he can’t help but say: “Sap.”

Clint grins. “Don’t you know it.”

“Indeed,” Bruce murmurs. “So, do you want to see your final gift?”

Clint raises an eyebrow, curious. “You have another gift for me?”

“Yeah,” Bruce nods and beckons for Clint to follow him to the study. “It’s… special.” He says and stops in front of the closed door of the study. He shuffles his feet, looks down and then peers up at Clint. “I really hope you like it. If you don’t and I crossed some sort of line, you should –”

Bruce is silenced when Clint shakes his head. “There are no lines between us, babe.” He says and reaches his free hand out to give Bruce’s hand a gentle squeeze. “You have absolutely nothing to worry about.”

Bruce nods, swallows the lump that has settled in his throat and mutters: “Okay.”

Then he turns and opens the door to the study, revealing the slightly old fashioned pinball machine, decorated with bright drawings and looking very out of place between all the books.

Clint gasps and just looks at the machine for a few moments. Then, he steps into the room, absentmindedly putting his wine down on a shelf and slowly walks to the machine.

He stands in front of it for a few moments, hands hovering over it before he lets one fall down to the glass plate on top of it. “Bruce,” he mumbles softly, his voice heavy with emotion, before he falls silent.

“I- uh… I saw you looking at it, at that store, you know? And you said it brought back memories and I know they were good memories so… I wanted to get you this, because I thought you loved it and I really, really hope you like it.” Bruce knows he’s rambling. But Clint is still standing with his back to him, looking at the machine and not saying anything and it is making him nervous.

Then Clint turns around, one of the most adoring and happy expressions on his face that Bruce has ever seen.

It takes his breath away, and when Clint quickly strides towards him and hugs him close, head pressing firmly against his neck, he almost spills his wine. 

“You’re amazing.” Clint whispers then. “I don’t know what I ever did to deserve you, but you’re perfect.”

When Clint pulls away a bit, Bruce quickly puts his wine down on the desk and hugs Clint close in return. He presses the side of his face against Clint’s, fingers sliding into soft, short hair. “The same goes for me, you know?”

Clint snorts. “Yeah, right. Just a reminder, I don’t get you a freaking pinball machine because it reminded you of the only good part of your childhood.”

“But you put up with me. Me and the other guy. And my un-coolness and the way I always want to be in control but most of the time, I’m not. You put up with that, with everything without complaining and you never ask for anything in return. I think that’s much better than a pinball machine.” Bruce says, voice full of love and adoration.

Clint swallows, hands clinging to Bruce’s shirt, but he remains silent nonetheless.

“But, if you –”

“Bruce?” Clint asks right away, before Bruce can start babbling again.

“Yeah?” Bruce asks, pulling away to look at Clint.

“Shut up.” Clint says and then leans forward to capture Bruce his lips with his.

Bruce happily returns the kiss, sliding his lips against Clint his and closing his eyes.

 

“You really went all out with this, didn’t you?” Clint later asks, when they are lying on the couch and listening to the jazz Bruce put on earlier, sipping their wine.

“I did,” Bruce admits and then with a small smile admits: “It was very tiring.”

“Aww,” Clint makes a whining noise and turns his neck in an awkward angle to look at Bruce with a pout. “So we won’t be doing this again next year?”

Bruce smirks. “We’ll have a tree again. And Wade will get presents, of course.”

“But no second pinball machine?” 

Bruce laughs and shakes his head. “No. No way.”

Clint makes a disappointed sound and then grins. “What if I told you I really, really wanted a puppy?”

Bruce chuckles and leans down to kiss Clint. “I might actually consider that.”

When Clint cheers in triumph, Bruce already feels bad for the puppy to be adopted by their insane little family.


End file.
